Wednesday, 12 August 2009

I had great intentions this last week for a whole host of blog posts, I've taken glorious photographs of dazzling dahlias, giant teapot sculptures, and cats sleeping in suitcases........so what excuses do I have.......none, just the chaos of the packing, the joys of days out to escape from the packing, and the excuses to indulge in tea shop treats, and perhaps the odd bottle of wine, and actually suprisingly little chocolate.tonight when really I should have been organizing the last few things, I escaped with my most wonderful sister in law, and we had coffee and cake at Betty's. Utterly decadent; piano playing in the background, white linen table cloths, swiss chocolate torte, and joy of joy a box of pastel coloured cream filled macaroons to bring home, a slow wander through the streets, a lingering glance at the floodlit minster, clutching my little bag with its oh so pretty treasure.

tomorrow at 9 the van comes to start loading, Friday is the big day, (fingers crossed all the money nonsense goes smoothly, and on time...........) I'll take lots of photos, and count the number of boxes (how many do you think there are? a lot .......) and I'll be back as soon as we have a broadband connection, which might take 2 weeks - I know - TWO WEEKS, it's not like we're moving to the north pole, although Miss K did wonder if there might be polar bears - I so hope she was joking..........

Tuesday, 4 August 2009

oops, it's August already. how did that happen? thanks for all the best wishes for our escape to the coast, we had a lovely time. ok so it was very damp at times....... on at least 3 occasions I was soaked to the skin. but we drank tea, watched the tide come in and out, and the fishing boats come and go, didn't venture too far, recharged our mental batteries. In a whole week I didn't take a single photo, but I guess hubby took this, one of the many seagulls that kept us awake at night, and awoke us in the very early hours....... so there are no photos of the scarecrow festival, of the waves crashing, the crabs scuttling, or of the painting I lusted after at the local art festival......... too many pennies............

and then we were home, back to reality, and LOTS of wet washing............

oh and the boxes..........

if you look carefully you can see Freddie mountain climbing, and the jasmine growing in through the window............

but the boxes will finally be moving somewhere soon, we've finally exchanged contracts !!!!hurray, I really thought it might never happen.our buyers might just be the most pedantic people in the whole world.......and last time we sold a house it all fell through on the exchange date, causing much heartache, and a huge whole in the bank balance....which might just be why I've been a bit cautious of talking too much about the new house, once we'd had the offer accepted I just had to hold my breath, and wait and wait, almost as if I thought too much about it, or told everyone it would be tempting fate too much. silly huh..

but now it really has to happen, or we end up with a huge fine, so moving we will be, Friday the 14th (not the 13th thankfully!) is the big day, to a lovely almost new house, with a study, (which is going to be mine! I'm so excited, can't wait to be able to spread out my sewing and leave it out), a view of the sea in the distance, and a small garden just waiting to be filled with roses.

and so with papers exchanged a celebration was needed,

and at parties there has to be cake, lots of cake

and what you really should do after eating lots of cake is bounce and bounce and bounce, especially if it's pouring with rain, and the extra excitement of a rather slippery bouncy castle in the garden is just too much to resist!

but I shall leave you today with a warning for any of you partying in the rain this summer

when you carry the picnic table into the house to escape from the rain, check underneath, or your party might have uninvited guests too..................

I live near the sea in Northumberland where I drink a lot of tea, bake gluten free cakes, make quilts, and walk on the beach. The rest of the family includes J - understanding hubby, Miss K - 17, and E - 15.